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Monday, February 24, 1997

Helping others has become more than just "community service"

By LYNN BULMAHN Waco Tribune-Herald

WACO - When Shea Squires found herself inside the Family Abuse Center, it wasn't because she'd been beaten.

The Vanguard High senior had, instead, been assigned 20 hours of community service last June as part of a traffic ticket penalty.

"I could not imagine a more pathetic summer day than one requiring community service," she recalls.

Her attitude soon changed. She saw the difference she was making in this one agency - and in the lives of its clients.

Her experience is being multiplied many times over.

Around the nation, surveys reveal, young people are showing up their elders as they volunteer in greater numbers than do adults.

And domestic violence is one of the forefront problems younger volunteers are tackling.

Long after her 20 hours had ended, Shea Squires was still helping out at Family Abuse. And telling others about it.

"We got a whole lot (of volunteers) from Vanguard because of Shea," said Family Abuse's volunteer coordinator Bobbie Crow.

Some worked at the Abuse Center as part of a peers facilitation class, said sponsor Jo Ann Jumper. In doing so, "they began to become aware of some of the really different situations people are living in," she added.

Baylor senior Keleigh Sharp also helps the Family Abuse Center and its Sanctuary House division.

As service chairwoman for the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, Sharp has spearheaded projects ranging from painting to planting gardens, from walkathons to pledge class work days.

That's partly because the national organization's foundation lists domestic abuse as its main issue.

But there's a reason even closer to Sharp's heart.

"My sister was a victim of domestic violence," the marketing major said. She said her sister ended the relationship after the first incident and is now safe. But not before Sharp got a firsthand look at the problem. She realized that domestic violence can happen to anyone.

Most youngsters at Robinson Junior High School have never set foot in the Family Abuse Center's shelter. No matter.

They've done plenty of service projects to benefit the agency's clients, said life management class instructor Karen Curlee.

A recent scavenger hunt encouraged students to bring in goods that battered women and their children could use, including disposable diapers, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, children's socks, family videos and household products.

Youngsters also raised funds for the agency by collecting 25 cents per vote to elect players to the school's All Star basketball game. The quarters added up. The basketball balloting netted the Family Abuse Center more than $280.

The Robinson students, Squires and Sharp are part of a trend - a growing number of young volunteers working to make a difference in their communities.

It comes at a crucial time. With decreasing state and federal aid, nonprofit human service agencies need help more than ever. They are looking to the private sector - and, especially, to volunteer workers - to help them carry on their good works.

"It's really been a neat deal," to have the younger volunteers at work, Crow said.

Squires said she did "little things" at Family Abuse - organizing the office, letting residents into the shelter when they rang the outside bell, helping to cook a meal and being a "go-for." Young volunteers have sorted through donated items for the center and its Robinson thrift store.

Working with the shelter's children is another plum assignment. Squires noticed that even the youngest ones had already learned some abusive behaviors - hitting and pulling other children's hair.

"It was so sad because they were so little and already they were imitating the violence they'd seen at home," she remembers.

Is going inside a Family Abuse agency an eye-opening experience? It is for college freshmen, said Katie Garrett, director of the Family Abuse Sanctuary Home.

The home allows some of the "graduates" of the emergency shelter, those who have nowhere else to go, to live in small housing units as they find work and a new home in which to raise their children.

Garrett said around 50 of Sharp's pledge sisters painted interiors of some of the living units during a recent Saturday - a task the paid staff had no time to perform.

"Donating time and resources, that's extremely valuable to us," she said.

"We want to kind of lift the women's spirits" while they're living at the sanctuary residence, Sharp said. "It weighs you down when you're in surroundings that are not very pretty looking."

Thanks to the Alpha Chi Omegas, the aging structure now looks years younger.

"Our pledges did an awesome job," Sharp said.

Although this is Sharp's last month as service chairman, she hopes her successor will carry on the work.

And there are plenty more projects to do, she said.

In wake of federal budget cuts limiting food stamps, Garrett said Sanctuary Home and its clients must become more self-sufficient. To that end, she wants a vegetable garden put in so residents can grow fresh produce.

Also, she's hoping to be given containers - such as half barrels - to serve as planters for marigolds and other flowers.

Sharp believes work projects will help raise students' awareness of the needs of agencies such as Sanctuary House and Family Abuse Center.

Even though it was mostly grunt work, the sorority volunteers were getting an education, both women agree.

"A lot of girls were asking questions - how long do they stay here, what do they do," Sharp said. "We had a couple of girls make comments about how Sanctuary House doesn't have as much as they do."

Many times, the students say, both high school and college coeds have been "in a bubble," unaware of problems occurring in the community.

Squires, a ballet student bound for business school at the University of Texas this fall, said the experience did her good. She's more aware of domestic violence issues, including date rape and verbal abuse.

Overall, Sharp said, she found the experience "interesting and fun."

"I could see how my individual contribution helped," especially with the children, she added. "Anything you do, even a smile helps them feel better." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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